Salsa
is sauce. Spicy sauce, the stuff you use as a dip for tortilla chips.
Although I know people who use it as sandwich spread ...

But wait a minute, wasn't this a Latin dance and music site ? Oh yes,
sorry about the mix up. There is another, derived meaning for that same
word. The story is that some Latin band leader (was it Chano Pozo ?),
when entertaining the people in the New York dance halls of the 50's,
used to shout Salsa ! at his musicians in an attempt to spice
up the music. In the 60's and 70's, the Puerto Rican record labels that
dominated the Latin music market in New York adopted this catchy phrase
to promote their products. As such, salsa became synonymous with
the style of Latin music or tropical music that was
popular in that city in those days.

So what was this music like ? If you listen to records from that era,
you will hear songs with a distinct Cuban son montuno, cha-cha-cha, mambo,
rumba or bolero feeling, others are more like Puerto Rican bomba or plena.
You can also hear a lot of Dominican merengue and even Afro-American jazz
or cubop. Historically, the term salsa as a musical genre is
not as limited as most people nowadays think it is !

For most music genres, there exists an associated dance form indicated
by the same name. For salsa as defined above, this would be a
bit strange : the rhythmic patterns of the musical genres listed above
are so completely different that it is impossible to pair them with a
single dance form. But somewhere along the line the meaning of the term
salsa became restricted to son, mambo and other genres with a
similar rhythmic structure. And that is what most people nowadays understand
by salsa.

Not that we are purists, but we like to use the terms son montuno,
mambo, cha-cha-cha ... instead of simply salsa.
That is because these terms more clearly indicate what form of dance we
are talking about, and if you are trying to learn or teach a dance this
helps. A lot of musicians feel the same about this subject. The late Tito
Puente was known to hate the S-word : he played mambo, cha-cha-cha, ...
! So we are in good company.

What is son montuno, mambo and cha-cha-cha ?

The
historic view

If we want to go back all the way into
time, we have to start with some English country dance that became popular
as the contredance at the French court in the 17th century. Via
spain, where it was called contradanza, it reached Cuba in the
18th century. There it was called danza. After the independence
of Haiti, French officers and plantation owners fled to Cuba where they
added to the popularity of this dance and soon it became Cuba's national
dance. At the end of the 19th century, the dance liberated itself from its
European heritage and evolved into a less strict form called danzon.
The danzon music is still played today by modern charanga orchestras.

Another bloodline that contributes to modern Latin music starts with
the son. This musical genre originated in the 19th century in
the eastern mountains of Cuba as a mixture of African and Spanish elements.
The foundation is the African percussion, on top of that is a Latin layer
of harmony, melody and verse structure. It was the music of the working
class. By the 1920's, son had spread west and had become the most popular
music and dance for Cubans at all levels of society, although it was considered
obscene by the upper class and even prohibited for a while. But that of
course only added to it's popularity. It had been cleaned up a little
to the tastes of the white urban population, but in the late 30's, Arsenio
Rodriguez began reconnecting son with its African roots. He added the
conga as an instrument to the rhythm section and also introduced a montuno
section to the song structure where there was room for melodic and rhythmic
improvisation. This under the influence of that other very African Cuban
music genre, the rumba As such the son montuno was born.
Son and son montuno are still popular today.

Now back to the danzon. The danzon is composed of a number of distinct
sections. The coda or final section is of a very lively nature and musicians
got in the habit of improvising on that part. In 1938, Orestes Lopez composed
a danzon he called mambo. The coda for this piece of music, which
was announced by the band leader as Mil Veces Mambo ! (a thousand
times mambo), was inspired by elements of the son. Very soon this new
mambo music got popular among the working-class. Pérez Prado was the first
to market his compositions under the name mambo which he popularized
as a specific musical genre. By the mid-1950's mambo mania had reached
fever pitch. In New York it was played by the big orchestras under the
leadership of Tito Puente, Machito and Tito Rodriguez in the famous Palladium
Ballroom. The city's best dancers gave demonstrations there and developed
an expressive or even acrobatic style.

As mambo music and dance developed, musicians experimented with new
beats and tempos. Triple mambo was created by tripling one of the beats
very rapidly. When you dance to this fast rhythm, the scraping and shuffling
of the feet produce a sound that goes a bit like "cha cha cha". Later
the tempo of the this new music was slowed down so that the non-Palladium
dancers could also move to it, resulting in today's cha-cha-cha

Your
first son and mambo steps !

Bear
with us because we've never tried to explain a dance step to a complete
novice in writing only. But we'll give it a go. We're afraid though that
this chapter might sound a bit ridiculous to any experienced dancer.

For those who have never done any dancing other than free style : if you
want to dance as a couple, and you want to avoid standing on each others
toes, there are a few simple rules to follow. These rules are characteristic
to any particular dance. In it's most basic form, for each dance these
rules can be reduced to what is called a basic time step.

For our purpose, the basic time step for son, mambo and even bolero are
so similar that we won't even try to explain where they differ. What does
this basic time-step look like ? Easy :

start
with both feet together, your weight is on your right foot

your
left foot steps forward

balance
back on your right foot (that stayed in place)

put
your left foot next to your right and change your weight to your left
foot

do
the same thing, mirror image, with your right foot to the back

You
won't be surprised if we tell you that this is only a very crude approximation
of the mambo or son basic time step. But it should give you an idea. And
although this basic time step is very important, we hardly ever dance
it because there are so many other interesting steps. If you want to learn
the finer details, come to our classes !

A little word about the cha-cha-cha basic. As we explained above, the
cha-cha-cha rhythm evolved from the mambo by tripling one beat. This happens
in the basic time step where you bring your feet back together and change
your weight to the other side. The tripling in the rhythm translated to
the dance gives a rapid weight shift from left to right to left to right
or vice-versa. Because each weight shift is accompanied by a slight movement
of the feet, the characteristic cha-cha-cha sound is produced.

One more thing : the forward and backward steps are called break steps.
Not that this is an important concept, but we will use this term in the
next chapter.

The big divide : on-1 or on-2 ?

Now
it gets complicated. If you have no dance experience whatsoever, you probably
won't understand what all the fuzz is about. But if you hear some dancers
discuss this subject, you'd think there is a religious war going on. This
is our small attempt at defusing the situation.

When dancing you try to follow the rhythm of the music. All the musical
genres that we discuss here are played in 4/4 time : there are 4 beats
to a bar of music. A single basic time step takes 2 bars of music : one
for the forward break, one for the backward break. Up to this point, every
dancer will agree with us. The problem is on exactly what beat of a bar
the break step should be done, and as you might have guessed there are
2 major schools of thought.

When you try to identify the different beats in a piece of music, you
will almost always let yourself guide by the emphasized first beat of
the bar. This is your starting-point. If you don't hear this beat, don't
try learning to dance. When doing the basic time step as described above,
to most people it will feel very natural to let the break step coincide
with this emphasized first beat. This style of dancing is called dancing
on-1. So what is wrong with it ? Nothing. But just maybe there is
another way that is more authentic and more deeply related to the underlying
rhythms of the music.

An important thing to understand is that Caribbean dancing is not about
your feet but about your body : your hips, your shoulders, your rib cage.
You move your feet only so that your hips do the characteristic Cuban
hip motion and your shoulders and rib cage do the accompanying counter
body motion. This hip motion happens when your feet are placed together
and your weight is shifting to the other foot. If you let the emphasized
1st beat coincide with this most important motion, the break step that
follows it is on the 2nd beat. This style of dancing is known as dancing
on-2.

Since most people execute their break step on-1, this breaking on-2 thing
must be very artificial, or what ? Before jumping to this conclusion,
we advise you to have a closer look at the exceptions, those that do dance
on-2. Have you ever seen an old Cuban couple dance to an authentic son
montuno song ? These people grew up with the music, they know its origins
and its rhythms, maybe not in their heads but most certainly in their
hearts. They never went to any dance class so they don't do any fancy
turns or steps and you should be able to analyze their footwork quite
easily. And when you do, you will see them breaking on-2 !

So let's try to explain what it is in the music that those authentic son
montuno dancers hear and leads them to dance on-2. One of the most important
percussion instruments in the son is the conga, and the rhythmic pattern
the congero plays is, in it's most simple form, something like this
(we hope your browser can play these sound files : it is rather difficult
to discuss rhythms without actually hearing them, unless you are a trained
musician). This rhythm is called the tumbao. The important thing
to note in this rhythm is the marked, higher pitched slap on
the second beat, inviting the dancer to do a break step. There are also
the two lower pitched do-doom notes on beats four and four and
a half, coinciding with the hip and shoulder motion. If you want to practice
dancing on this rhythm, start by simply shifting your weight from left
to right on the do-doom and back on the next do-doom.
As soon as you feel comfortable doing this, try to add a break step on
the slap immediately following the weight shift (when you shifted
to the right, do the forward break with your left foot and vice-versa).
And then you are dancing on-2. There is absolutely nothing artificial
about it, in fact once you are used to it you can't imagine dancing any
other way on this tumbao rhythm.

Since we are talking music theory anyway we'd better continue and introduce
you to that other most important rhythm in Latin music : the clave.
This rhythm is usually played on two hard wooden sticks (also called clave)
and sounds like this. A
complete clave pattern spans two bars of music. The first bar has two
notes, the second three. Many people who dance on-2 say they dance on
clave but you shouldn't take this literally in a sense that they
step on each note of the clave - that is clearly impossible (six steps
for five notes). What they want to express is the fact that they use the
tension caused by the asymmetry of this pattern as a guide for their dance.
Let me explain. The three notes in the second bar are evenly spaced in
time and this will get you in a certain rhythm. But this rhythm is broken
because the next note is delayed for a little while. This creates a certain
tension that is released as soon as the two notes of the next bar are
played, somewhat faster than the first three. The release of the tension
is exactly on the 2nd beat of a bar, and this leads the dancer into doing
a break step. Got that ? No ? Listen to the music and try once more, or
come to our classes and we'll explain it again
!

We've been cheating a little here. Actually, there are several different
clave rhythms. If you want to know the full story, there are some interesting
websites that you can find in our links section.

A modern salsa song will not always utilize a clearly recognizable conga.
But most of the time there will be a very distinct bass guitar and this
instrument plays approximately the same rhythm as the conga. Put on one
of your favorite CD's and try to find the bass line. Most of the time
you will be able to distinguish a long note starting on the fourth beat
that is the equivalent of the do-doom discussed above. So this
long note coincides with your hip motion. Also, the clave will not always
be present as a distinct instrument. But all instruments will use this
rhythm as a guideline. The piano, the brass section, ... they will all
accentuate the clave in some of their solo's. A half decent sonero will
even try to phrase his lyrics along the lines of the clave beat. Try to
look for it and we assure you you will find it in any salsa song.

To close this chapter, let's play some Q&A.

Is
dancing on-2 more difficult than dancing on-1 ?

I'm
afraid the answer to this one is yes, but only slightly. We have several
years of experience on this issue and we can state clearly that 90%
of all people who have the skills to learn to dance on-1 could as
well have learned to dance on-2. Very few people with enough rhythmic
feeling to dance at all are unable to find the 2nd beat. It takes
some exercise but that is why we have danc classes
...

If
I learn to dance on-2, can I partner up with people who dance on-1
?

It
is very easy to hear the 1st beat of the music, so all you have to
do is concentrate on that 1st beat instead of that 2nd. It won't even
feel strange because you have done it before, by accident, while trying
to find the 2nd beat in class ... Now, for you guys who want to lead
a partner on-2, and she has never done this, it will be a lot harder.
First of all your feeling for the 2 must be very strong so that she
won't confuse you, and also she has to be willing to follow you on
the 2. Try it, it can be a lot of fun.

Is
dancing on-2 better than dancing on-1 ?

No,
not necessarily. We know several very good dancers who have never
danced on-2 and we really like watching them perform. Dancing is about
feeling the music and expressing that feeling in your body movement.
That you can do breaking on-1, 2 or even 3. But people who really
feel the 2 often find it much more fun because it gives you some extra
freedom. You can play with the clave, your hips are not restricted
by the break step on the accentuated 1st beat, you can switch to cha-cha-cha
and back if the music requires it, ..

Eddie Torres vs. son montuno

As
explained above, the on-2 style of dancing has its origins in the Cuban
son montuno. By some strange quirk of history, it was in New York that
this style has been preserved and developed for several decades while
the rest of the world was largely dancing on-1. It has come to the point
where New York style is considered synonymous with dancing
on-2 (although technically speaking this is incorrect). Without any
doubt, one of the key factors in the blooming of this New York style is
the high quality of the Latin dance-studios in that city, and most importantly
the studio lead by Eddie Torres and his wife Maria. With some exaggeration,
one could say they are the link between the contemporary dancers and the
Palladium era dancers. Of course there are some other people in New York
who have contributed a lot (e.g. the RazzM'Tazz studio) but most of the
younger generation of New York Latin dancers, teachers and performers
have passed at some point in their careers through the Eddie Torres studio.

But there is something rather strange about the way Eddie Torres teaches
his basic time step : although he breaks on-2, he does not do the son
montuno basic ! To explain this properly, we have to go into some more
detail about the exact timing of these steps. This is also a good opportunity
to clarify one other mystery we've silently ignored until now : the music
is played in 4/4 time but there are only 3 steps for one bar of music.
So how do you execute 3 steps on 4 beats of music ? Easy : introduce a
pause, one beat where you don't step at all. Exactly where to insert this
pause is what differentiates Eddie Torres' basic from the son montuno
basic.

Have a look at the table below :

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

Son
montuno

pause

left
break forward

balance
back on right

left
in place

pause

right
break back

balance
back on left

right
in place

Eddie
Torres

right
in place

left
break forward

balance
back on right

pause

left
in place

right
break back

balance
back on left

pause

Break
on-1

left
break forward

balance
back on right

left
in place

pause

right
break back

balance
back on left

right
in place

pause

This
is a very crude description of the mechanics of the three basic time steps,
but it is very useful as a clarification of the differences and similarities
that exist among them. Let's forget about the last row - which we've only
included for sake of completeness - and concentrate on the first two.
You'll notice that they are in fact quite similar, their only difference
lies in what happens on beats 4 and 5 (or their mirror images : 8 and
1) right after you've balanced back from the break step. Eddie Torres
teaches you to wait one beat before you continuing with your next step,
a son montuno dancer would step back immediately and introduce a pause
where both his feet are together.

It is obvious that the difference between the two on-2 styles of dancing
is minimal, and people who are used to dance both will tell you without
any doubt that both styles feel very similar. In fact, when the tempo
of the music is fast, it will be difficult to tell if you are dancing
one or the other style, or something in between, because the pause will
be very short. Also, experienced on-2 followers will have no problem dancing
with a leader that guides her in either of two styles. Most of the time
she won't even notice that her partner is doing something a little bit
different than she is doing, or she might even adapt her step subconsciously.

So much about the similarities, now a word about the differences. A critical
Eddie Torres dancer will say that the son montuno basic time step is awkward
because it interrupts your natural movement when you pause on the 5th
beat with both feet next to each other. A son montuno dancer will answer
that there is no interruption of movement at all : dancing is not about
your feet but about your body and you need that moment where both feet
are together so that you can gradually change weight from one foot to
the other and do the Cuban hip motion and counter body shoulder motion.
He will also criticise the Eddie Torres dancer that his basic step reduces
the freedom of movement for the hips. The reply he'll no doubt get is
that this is not true at all because there is no real pause on the 4th
beat of the Eddie Torres basic time step but only a very slow step that
starts on the 4th beat and finishes on 5th and that this step can very
well be combined with all the hip and shoulder motion you desire.

We have put it a bit to the extreme in the previous paragraph, but in
New York some on-2 dancers do have very strong opinions about this subject.
We believe this is largely due to the status Eddie Torres has as a Latin
dance instructor : it is almost considered blasphemy to prefer the son
montuno basic above the basic time step of the mambo king ! Not that we
want to suggest the man doesn't deserve the respect he gets from the New
York mambo community, on the contrary. We think Eddie Torres has very
good reasons to teach what he teaches, there might even be a very sound
historical link with the danzon as some people have suggested (see the
links), but this shouldn't be used as an argument
against the son montuno basic. We advise anyone to try out both styles,
learn where they are different and similar, be enriched by the experience
and use the one they feel most comfortable with. You might find out as
we did that it feels much more natural to dance the son montuno basic
on a slow tempo song, and when the music is faster it doesn't really matter.

Cuban salsa vs. New York salsa

This
is a non-issue. If you have read our short historical analysis above,
you should know why. If you want us to get really mad you can always try
to start a discussion with us on this topic. But for the very last time,
here we go again.

All styles of salsa as a dance form are Cuban because they have the danzon
and son as their common background. It's as simple as that.

If someone says Cuban salsa he or she most often means the form
of dance used by most young Cuban people today. The correct name for this
style is casino or casino rueda if they do it in a circle.
We didn't invent that name, that is the name used in Cuba, they didn't
use the name salsa over there until recently.

Casino
is heavily influenced by North American swing or jive. That is especially
true for the turn patterns used in that style (the simple ones are exact
copies). So you could say that casino is North American salsa,
right ?

Dancing on-2 is what all Cuban old-timers do when they hear a son montuno
: they listen to the clave and tumbao, simply follow the music, and end
up breaking on-2. In that respect, the New York style of dancing is even
more Cuban than what most young Cubans dance today.

If you dance your basic time step without a slow step but with a kick
or tick on the 4th beat of the bar, or if you dance it without breaking
front and back, your style of dance is influenced by the Colombian cumbia.
This is not Cuban at all.

We warned you we would get mad ...

Some
people might find the contents of this page a bit opinionated. If
you are one of those and can't resist it, you are invited to express
your feelings directly to the author.
- Joris.